In Times of Trouble
by wibblywobblytimeywimeygirl13
Summary: 15 years later the troubles return ahead of schedule and Nathan and Audrey have some difficulty explaining things to their daughter. (Written pre-season 3 finale so sorry that it doesn't line up at all)


They were supposed to have 27 years. 27 years before they would have to explain to Kaylee why she couldn't feel pain or temperature or the touch of any person other than her mother, but Audrey had not gone into the barn and the pattern had been throw askew. It was worth it, but it meant that there was not telling how much time they had before the troubles returned and they had to explain to their daughter all the secrets of Haven.

They came back when she was thirteen. Kaylee was at the movies with a group of friends and would be spending the night at one of their houses, and her parents were enjoying a rare few hours to themselves. Audrey was trying to find them a movie while Nathan was cooking dinner, not pancakes this time. They had eaten pancakes at least twice a week for the past fifteen years, and though Audrey hardly considered it a high price to pay, she was not having the breakfast food for their romantic dinner. She was clicking through a list of romantic comedies she knew her husband would despise with a passion when the shout came from the kitchen. "Audrey!"

There was no mistaking the panic in Nathan's voice, she dropped the remote knocking over one of the champagne glasses they had poured earlier, in her haste to get up. She rushed into the kitchen to find Nathan fallen on the ground clutching his hand and _shaking_. She could not remember the last time she had seen him this frightened. Not in fifteen years. Not since...

"What? What is it?" she demanded, kneeling down next to him. Nathan extended his hand, which was bleeding from where he had sliced it on the knife. Audrey sighed with relief internally. He had sounded so afraid, she had thought something awful had happened. She took his hand in hers and tried to erase some of the relief from her voice, as that wasn't the best emotion to be experiencing when one's loved one had just been wounded, and said sympathetically "Yikes. That looks like it hurts. C'mon let's get you a bandage"

Nathan turned to look at her and Audrey still couldn't figure out why his face was so twisted with fear. It was just a cut after all, the man had had nails embedded in his back for god's sake. When he spoke his voice was calm and low, but shaky "It doesn't hurt"

Audrey stared at him, confused, unable to wrap her head around what he had just said "What do you-"

"Audrey" he spoke again, more urgently, clasping her hand tightly with his good one "_It doesn't hurt" _

She stared at where the blood was running off his fingers and blossoming in scarlet flowers on the white tile floor. "Oh"

Neither of them said anything for a little while. Audrey pulled Nathan up off the floor and wrapped a bandage around his fingers, then she forced him to rest on the couch despite his protests that he was "perfectly fine" and cleaned up the champagne. She finished cooking dinner and they ate in the living room. They watched the worst romantic comedy Audrey could find, but neither of them mocked it the way they usually did. No one touched the remaining champagne.

Halfway through the movie Audrey grabbed for the remote and turned it off. She turned to Nathan. "So they're back"

"Yeah"

"We could leave"

He smiled at her but shook his head "You know we can't"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah" he said. It was a lie and they both knew it. The troubles were back and already their little Haven home didn't feel safe anymore. There were monsters living in the shadows that hadn't been there in nearly fifteen years. She scooted closer to him on the sofa until her head could rest against his chest. She found the spot where she could hear his heart beating, just as strong and reassuring as ever. They had survived the troubles before, and they would do it again, but this time was different...

"How are we going to tell her?"

"I don't know" How could they possibly? They had decided at some point, without ever really discussing it, that the best course of action would be to leave their daughter innocent of the troubles for as long as possible. She was young, and they did not want to frighten her. But now the troubles were looming over them and there was no telling when or how they would strike Kaylee. She needed to know. But how do you tell a child that there might really be monsters in the dark?

"Nathan?" she whispered into the darkness, not even sure he could hear her, almost hoping he couldn't.

"Yeah?"

"I'm scared"

He moved his arms up to circle around her, suddenly acutely aware of everything that he had to lose this time around. "Me too, Parker" he said planting a kiss on her forehead. He rubbed his hands along the places where gooseflesh had developed on her arms, reassuring himself that she was still there "Me too"

Eventually the decision was made that their daughter would not be informed of the troubles until it became an issue. Nathan would go on pretending like he could feel, and they would explain when they needed to explain. There was a chance that time would never even come. There was a possibility that she hadn't inherited his trouble. Maybe they would never have to tell her at all.

The time did come though, of course it did, because if there was a chance for the troubles to mess up there little utopia, then by god they would. The time came when Kaylee Wuornos fell down during gym class, got up, dusted herself off, changed out of her uniform, and walked into Geometry with a bleeding head and a dislocated shoulder.

Her parents were sifting through old paper work, trying to do some useless preparation for the return of the Troubles, when the call came in from the hospital. Audrey dropped the phone and went to get her husband. They abandoned their work and left the police station with the phone still hanging off it's cord on the edge of the desk.

Kaylee was fine. She reeded some stitches and a cast and would be getting a year round excuse from gym and two weeks off school, both of which were fine by her. The doctors wanted to keep her longer because they suspected a head injury (she claimed she the wound didn't even hurt!) but her parents insisted on taking her home as soon as the shoulder was mended. In the car on the way back to her house she ran her fingers over the leather of the seats. She couldn't feel it.

"Daddy" she said to Nathan, her voice shaking with fear.

"What is it sweetheart?"

"I think I need to go back to the hospital"

He pulled the car over, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel, preparing herself for what would come next, and both her parent's turned to look at her, "Why's that?"

"I can't feel anything"

When they got back to the house Audrey sat her daughter down on the couch, and Nathan disappeared to the kitchen to make pancakes at his daughter's request. Apparently the trouble was not the only thing that was genetic.

"Listen Kaylee" Audrey said. She'd been trying to work out how she was going to explain this for years and hadn't come up with anything decent "There's something…. different about you. Not medically. You and your father are what we call troubled"

"Okay…" Great, her daughter already looked confused and skeptical and Audrey hadn't even gotten to the weird part yet. "What's that mean?"

"Well. As you may have noticed, neither of you can feel anything"

"Wait. Dad can't feel anything?" Audrey was fairly surprised their daughter hadn't noticed. Though she loved him to death, Nathan was one of the worst actors she had ever met. Duke had realized three seconds after they went to The Gull on Saturday, and the rest of the town had not been far behind. Perhaps you had to know what to look for, or perhaps Kaylee hadn't wanted to see.

Audrey nodded "He hasn't been able to for a few months now. We were waiting for the right time to tell you"

Kaylee seemed to take this in stride. She was a steady kid, though that could only go so far "So it's like a genetic disease or something?" She'd heard of diseases and conditions like this, and though she certainly felt kind of strange, she supposed that if you were going to get a disease you could do much worse. It might even be kind of cool. She'd be able to outlast the other kids in gym because her legs would never get sore, and she wouldn't have to worry about paper cuts or stupid stuff like that anymore.

"Or something" Audrey smiled.

"Well what is it?"

"It is genetic. Your dad has it, and your grandfather did, and any children you have probably will. But it isn't a disease. It's a trouble"

"And what _is_ a trouble?" This was starting to get annoying. Her mother wasn't usually this cryptic, and if this was a medical condition she needed to know.

Audrey laughed a little bit, and patted her daughters arm, noting the little eyebrow raise when she felt the touch "I'm getting to that Kaylee. So you may have noticed that the people in Haven are a little… odd sometimes"

"No duh, mom. Why did I just feel that?"

Audrey ignored both the sarcasm and the question and pushed forward "That's because some of them are different. They're troubled. They can do stuff that normal people can't"

"Like not being able to feel anything?"

"Like that" Audrey nodded "And like… other things" she took a deep breath and then continued "Unexplainable things, Kaylee. I once met a little boy who's nightmares came true, a man who brought the dead he buried back as ghosts, a child who could control people's minds. I'm immune to the troubles, because of-well I don't really know why, but I am. That's why you can feel me, sweetheart"

"Mom… that's- That's crazy" Kaylee was staring at her mother, eyes widened as far as they could go. This was not possible.

Nathan popped his head through the door frame "I know it sounds that way sweetheart, but it's not. I was there too" He strode out of the kitchen and over to his wife, putting an arm gently around her shoulder.

Kaylee nodded in shock, getting the distinct feeling that she should be more surprised than she was. Magic wasn't real, and there was no way there was anything supernatural, or "unexplainable" in this town.

And yet….

And yet sometimes she noticed things that didn't quite make sense. Maybe because she was her mother's daughter after all. She'd noticed that there was a woman in the newspaper archives that looked suspiciously like her mother. And there were a strange number of residents in the Haven asylum for such a small town. There was the large group of people with matching tattoos who she was told to avoid, and who always shot her mother hateful looks. There was the fact that train tracks don't appear suddenly in empty fields, houses don't spontaneously combust, and six people don't all get struck by lightning on the same day in the same town.

But that was Haven. That wasn't magic. That was just…. Haven.

"The point, Kay" Audrey said pulling her out of her reverie "is that your going to need to be prepared for some pretty strange things. And you're going to meet some people who can do these strange things, and some who can't. And the important thing is to remember that they are all people and it is our job to help them. Your father and I, that's what we did, last time the troubles were here. We're going to do it again this time, and there might come a time when you're going to have to do it on your own. That being said, I need to warn you. Some of them are going to want to hurt you. And you need to be on your guard"

"Why would anyone want to hurt me?"

This was the question that Audrey had feared the most. It's one thing to tell a thirteen year old that people in her town have magic powers. It was another thing all together to try to explain to her hate and prejudice, and the corruption of power, and the grudges people held against their family because Audrey had not gone in to the barn. She had changed the balance. There were some who appreciated that, and some who, well, didn't.

Fifteen years later they were still hated by the guard and their allies not to mention the Rev's former men. It seemed to be the only thing the two groups agreed on. It wasn't horrible, not usually. Their windows were shattered a little more than their neighbors'. And every so often someone would still come into the police station to spit at their feet, or even try and throw a punch. On occasion there were even threats, none of them had ever been followed through, but they still came. Once they had received a pigs head in their mailbox, eyes staring blankly up at them and a knife stuck in it's temple. They had looked into that one a little harder than the others, but they never did find out who sent it.

Now with the troubles back twelve years ahead of schedule it could only get worse. Kaylee needed to know what she was in for. "You see Kaylee. Some people are going to hate you, because your not like them and they can't understand what you can do. A lot of people are scared of what they can't understand. And frightened people tend to get angry. And some are going to hate you because a while ago, before you were born, your mommy and daddy made a decision. We think it was the right one, but not everybody agrees. Some people are angry with us, and they might take that anger out on you. Just try to ignore them Kay, and remember that it is _not _your fault, and there is nothing wrong with you. No matter what any of them say. There is nothing wrong with being troubled like you are, and don't you let them make you think otherwise. And if anyone is ever violent with you, or you even think they're about to be, you come to us right away. You understand me?"

Kaylee nodded. Already she felt isolated. There was something different about her, and even if her mom said there was nothing wrong with her it _felt _wrong. You were _supposed_ to be able to feel shoulder injuries. She was a freak!

Suddenly Kaylee put her head into her palms and erupted into sobs. Audrey crossed over to sit on the couch with her and she held her daughter and after a moment Nathan exited the kitchen again with a plate stacked high with pancakes and took a seat on the couch on Kaylee's other side. He wrapped his daughter in his arms and found Audrey's hand behind Kaylee and gripped it tightly, tracing his finger along her palm. He tried to think of something comforting to say to Kaylee but nothing would come. The trouble was awful, as troubles tended to be. And though it had had it's benefits over his years as a cop, he would've had traded it in for normality in a heartbeat. The last thing in the world he wanted was to see his daughter suffer from the same fate. But there was nothing to be done.

Still. It was hard to regret the choice that they'd made. Watching his wife play Kaylee's favorite movie and having his daughter fall asleep eventually with her head in Audrey's arms and her feet in his lap, and having his wife never let go of his hand until she had to release it so he could carry Kaylee back to her room, it was hard to regret any decision he made that got him here. He and Audrey had survived the troubles before and they would do it again, and this time they had each other, and they had Kaylee. They'd be alright.

**Author's Note: Thanks for reading. Please comment. I'm a new author, so any feedback is good feedback. I might write a sequel to this at some point if I ever figure out exactly how I want to do it, but for now it's standalone.**


End file.
